The 27 Best Deep-Sea Species #12: Yeti Crab

Now imagine doing the Yeti Stomp (I heart Backyardigans!) in the frigid waters of the deep sea instead of the icy north. The Yeti Crab, Kiwa hirsuta, shares the white shaggy appearance with its more well-known pseudo-relative of the snow. Kiwa was discovered in only 2005 from near hydrothermal vents at the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge (south of Easter Island). It was so strange that it constituted not even a new genus and species but who new family of crabs! The name Kiwa hirsuta translates to something like the "hairy goddess of the shellfish".

The "hairs" are called setae and are covered in filamentous bacteria. It is hypothesized that the bacteria detoxify the environment for the crabs. It may be possible that they are farming the bacteria for consumption, but crabs are carnivorous by nature, so this seems less likely, though it may make up a portion of their nutrition.